A 1918 building in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been transformed into a museum for that most modern and fast-changing of technologies: telecommunications. The building's various facades reflect both its historic roots and its modern purpose. This makeover for Rio's Telecommunications Museum appropriately reflects the remarkable evolution of technology over the past century.  Published 2005.0622

In the 1950s, Atlanta, Georgia named itself the city "too busy to hate." Unfortunately, it also became the city too busy to walk and, in recent history, was a deadly metro for pedestrians, ranking as high as third in the nation for pedestrian/ traffic fatalities.  Published 2005.0601

Uruguayan engineer Eladio Dieste would not have realized his brilliant, innovative works had he relied on the conventions of ordinary practice. Instead, he began from first principles. In the hands of this extraordinary engineer, adherence to first principles did not inhibit but rather enhanced the search for sound forms appropriate to the demands put upon them.  Published 2004.0929

The latest installment in a billion-dollar construction program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has just opened on the Cambridge campus, and it's unlike anything else MIT has ever built.

The Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry, is a rambling collage of odds and ends that now houses three MIT departments: the Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.  Published 2004.0623

Rome is an intensively occupied, definitively urban city. After thousands of years of concentrated human development and redevelopment, there is much hardscape, where the stony facade of one building is connected to the brick wall of the next by more stone, in the form of cobbled streets and other pavements.  Published 2004.0303

While in Kazakstan on my round-the-world bicycle tour, I visited the Hodja Ahmed Yasavi Mausoleum, one of the country's architectural gems. Surrounded by desert and low, rough, mud-brick buildings, the green tiled dome shimmers above the city of Turkestan.  Published 2004.0107

Like putting a new engine in a classic car or an updated graphics card in an old computer, a few New York architects are giving high-tech interiors to historic buildings. In each case — car, computer, building — the external appearance of the original can be maintained while its function is upgraded.  Published 2004.0107

The City of Phoenix, Arizona may be admired for its maverick spirit and the beauty of the surrounding desert. But this sprawling city of more than 350 square miles (900 square kilometers) has never been known for high-density living. The residential redevelopment known as Orpheum Lofts, however, sets a more urban example.  Published 2003.1015

Moshe Safdie's architecture continues to intrigue. Buildings such as the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Exploration Place Science Center and Children's Museum in Wichita, Kansas, and the Vancouver Public Library in Canada each exhibit the Israeli-born architect's passion for complex geometries, elegant materials, and urban place-making. The new $125 million addition to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is no exception.  Published 2003.0820

Construction is nearing completion for the Center for Cancer Treatment and Prevention at Stanford University in California. The building, located in the heart of earthquake territory, will contain seven linear accelerators to deliver therapeutic radiation to its clinics.

Guarding against both earthquakes and radiation has posed significant challenges for the general contractors, Rudolph and Sletten, Inc. They had to develop novel shoring systems and strict safety measures for workers handling leaded building materials.  Published 2003.0806